Applebee’s
commercial features a woman going about her average day: walking the dog,
preparing school lunch, working out, lecturing, working as a nurse, and picking
up her clothes from the dry cleaner. At the end of the day, her male partner
asks her if she has any thoughts on what they should have for dinner. She
orders from Applebee’s mobile app for a quick and easy pick-up order as this is
a commercial for Applebee’s. The advertisement could have featured a male and
receive about the same results, but they decided to feature a female. Women tend
to be portrayed in a warm and amicable manner and perhaps that is why a female
was chosen over a male. How women are generally viewed in our culture also
lends itself as to why the woman in the advertisement worked as a nurse—a pink
collared job. Nursing, teaching (high school and below), and social work are
three examples of jobs that are dominated by women. It is almost stereotypical
for a woman to work in any three of those fields because of how we presume
women to be “warm, kind, nurturing…and polite” (Thébaud and Charles 2018). So,
instead of having the woman in the advertisement work as something more
commonly dominated by men, they chose to have her work a job that more women
could possibly relate to and thus reinforce a sort of STEM stereotype that
women are better fit for a job like nursing instead of, say, a doctor or
engineer. Aside from the job choice, the advertisement highlights some actions
that are commonly female-orientated such as packing her kids’ lunch boxes and
taking care of dinner. There is also the heteronormative aspect as she has a
male partner that she is seen kissing near the beginning. The male is not shown
doing anything other than preparing for work and dancing with the kids as she
brings the dinner into the house.
The
company Always takes a different approach towards its advertisement. The advertisement
highlights how the phrase “like a girl” is used with an insulting intent. It
also highlights how the older participants in the commercial take the prompt “like
a girl” differently than the younger participants. For example, when one of the
younger participants is told to run like a girl, she runs like how one normally
runs instead of the stereotypical or gendered action of running the older
participants gave. The advertisement is not clear on what it is selling, but an
advertisement does not have to offer a product in order to receive more support
financially. This is one example of an advertisement advertising for the sake
of brand awareness while providing a message to those watching. In that sense,
the advertisement does its job well. The message that “like a girl” should not be
an insult or a derogatory statement is given quite well. Girls and women do actions
just like boy and men do actions. The negative comments in the comment section
highlight the idea that women and men have inherent differences in their
physical abilities and appearances, but these are easily dismissible as males and
females are more likely “culture events” rather than some “collection of traits”
or “physical attributions” (West and Zimmerman 1987). Likewise, “like a girl”
is a gendered concept that supports the idea that females do actions or do perform
their gender in an inferior manner than the default “like a boy” or “like a man”.
As noted in the description of the video, the phrase “like a girl” can hurt the
self-esteem of a girl in her adolescence and may prompt her to enact a script
the gendered hierarchy suggests of her: to accept inferiority and subordination
to males who are supposed to perform their gender in a more efficient and better
manner compared to the female. In that sense, “like a girl” also supports the
gendered divide in how actions are to be performed between males and females.
If a male is told he “throws like a girl” then his masculinity is tarnished as
this is suggestive that he is weak and feminine.
First video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3CxHEM3L5IA
Second video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XjJQBjWYDTs
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